Richery's expedition
[2] In an effort to rebalance these losses and inflict economic damage on British commerce, orders were sent for a squadron from the Mediterranean Fleet to sail to the Caribbean, land troops at Saint-Domingue, attack shipping off Jamaica and then destroy the cod fisheries off Newfoundland and the Canadian Maritimes.
[7] Richery sent his frigates ahead to attack the fleeing merchant ships, while his main squadron bore down on the outnumbered British warships.
The ship mounted only jury masts and was armed en flute, carrying insufficient gunpowder to sustain any significant engagement.
[9] At Rota the squadron was more exposed to the weather than they would have been in Cádiz, and on 17 December a storm swept the bay, driving Victoire, Duquesne and Révolution onto the shore.
[10] Although the terms were not signed until some time later, as good will gesture the Spanish fleet under Admiral Juan de Lángara agreed to accompany Richery out of the harbour with sufficient force to drive off a British attack.
Lángara assembled 20 ships of the line and 14 other vessels to join Richery's ten warships, the combined fleet sailing on 4 August.
[10] Lángara detached an escort fleet under Rear-Admiral José Solano y Bote, which sailed with Richery for 300 nautical miles (560 km) into the Atlantic.
[12] Once alone again, the French admiral steered a course northwest, planning to fulfill part of his original mission and attack the fisheries of Maritime Canada.
The British forces on station amounted to only a handful of small frigates and the fourth rate flagship HMS Romney under Vice-Admiral Sir James Wallace.
Under Williams' orders, Captain Thomas Graves, positioned Venus to block the harbour mouth and landed most of his crew to man the shore batteries and Fort Amherst.
Richery's descent on the islands was rapid, his forces landing without opposition and systematically destroying all of the buildings, fishing stages and boats of the communities there.
[16] It was hoped in France that Richery's returning squadron could be used to reinforce the planned Expédition d'Irlande, a large scale French effort to invade Ireland due to sail in the winter of 1796.
[18] It was intended that Richery would join the squadron at Lorient and sail together to Brest in preparation for the Irish operation, but he was initially driven off by the British presence off the port and had to anchor at Rochefort instead on 4 November.
When Richery finally reached Brest on 11 December, just four days before the expedition was due to sail, his ships were all condemned as unfit for further service and docked for lengthy repairs.
